I know is is probably something simple, but... What is the trick with custom heroes in prisons? Lately when I try to edit the hero in a prison, I am limited to heroes of a specific alignment. And the alignments seem limited to Demon, Haven, and Dark Elf (altho which alighment I am offered each times seems entirely random among the three). How do I get the map editor to allow me to place a Ranger in a prison?

Answer: try and try again.
No, that?s not a joke... but probably a bug. When I picked a prison it only has the heroes of a certain faction in it. So I unselect the prison and select it again. Now you got a different faction (though sometimes you get the same). This way I had the necros, the warlocks, and the dwarfs as well. I had the heaven?s too, but further that this I didn?t try because I was looking for the warlocks.

H.W.

I placed a prison and custom picked a hero then I removed the hero.

I did this for 20 or more minutes. I got all the factions except for rangers and necromancers.

Then I tried deleting the prison and placing new prison but I still couldn't get a ranger or necromancer.

Yeah by now I must have tried about 30 times (not nonstop, but I keep going back to it, thinking: "It has to wrok eventually, doesn't it?") and I believe I can get all factions except Necromancer and Ranger as well. Maybe the undead and sylvan heroes can't survive in prison...

*Shrug*
All I can tell you is that I tried and I did get the necro?s. I placed Raven on the map like that the first time around before I decided to just put her on the map as my main hero (I was playing as necro) and then placed 2 warlocks in prisons (forgot their names, but oh, did those ladies look nice. :P) to be my run-arounds. So I can tell you for a fact that I at least got all factions after some trying.

Oh, wait. I don?t know if this makes a difference, but this was on a HoF RMG map that I was editing a bit. (Also came across the dwarfs heroes while trying.)

Were you trying with the normal Heroes 5 editor? Maybe there is a difference between the two. Fabrice did say that HoF (and patch 4 of Heroes) would have the ?improved? editor.

H.W.

I'm using the hof editor.

I tried it on a single player map I'm making without using the rmg maps.

I gave up and put the necromancer as the starting hero on a random town.

I tried to put a prison on one of my multiplayer maps that I'm testing now but I only got the knights. At the time I thought the prisons only worked for different heroes on single player. So I didn't keep the prison on the map.

I get the dwarfs, dungeons, dark elfs, kights, wizards, and infernos but no necromancers or rangers.

I tried lots of times for several minutes each time. I even unselected all heroes and tried it.

I got the caravan one time, but never a ranger or necromancer.

Now I wish I'd put the caravan in the prison and seen what would happen when I rescued it.

Well, I just tried 50 times (yes I counted) and now I also can?t get any necros anymore. On the other hand in all those tried I have never come across the caravan in a prison.
So, this leaves me to believe that, yes, Necros CAN show up in a prison since I had that happen, but the percentage of it happening is simply ridiculously low while the others are ridiculously high. For instance, in those 50 tries, I would say that half of them were knights. And let me just add to that that one of the Nival programmers really must love Isabel.

For the life of my, I don?t understand anyway why the prison has to be such a lottery. You have a menu to select a different hero in the prison, surely it wouldn?t be that hard to have a menu to select the faction so that you can then go and select a hero of the faction you want.

After all, what good is the custom option if you can?t custom the hero to the faction you want?

H.W.

alias-hw, I may have gotten the caravan when I un-selected all heroes.

When the editor first came out with patch 3, I put a prison on one of my maps.

I was able to select the faction and a ranger.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Swiftari,

This may sound somewhat silly, but how about this: Place a castle on the map that coincides with the type of character you want to put in the prison. Assign a Player number to the castle. Then, with the same player number selected on the Objects screen, select the prison and place it on the map.
I haven't tried it, but if there is a bug, maybe this is a way to get around it.

I just tried it... it doesn?t work.

I did however also get the caravan in the prison this time.
Of course, I had to check out what happens. Unfortunately it?s nothing spectacular. All that happens is that you still rescue some hero. I got a academy hero.

H.W.

deejmaster1, I tried that when I was trying to get a necromancer.

I also put several prisons on the map, each one with a hero from the fractions I could get. Then I put more prisons on the map, each with a selected hero. Still couldn't get a ranger or necromancer.

I did get prisons with the same hero I already had selected in one of the prisons. Never tested to see what happens when the same hero is selected in several prisons though.

The only thing I can think of to get a necromancer is keep trying for one. I gave up because it was way too hard to get a necromancer and I just put her on the map.

The only way I think you can get a ranger is through coding the path to the entrance of the prison by having a ranger join the player and blocking the prison so they can't take the hero from inside the prison. But I don't know how to script it to make it happen.

The other way for a ranger or any fraction, would be to put the hero on the map, making it the player's color, and trapping the hero behind a strong neutral army.

Edited to add;
I think, if the player can't click on a object, they won't waste their movement points to try. I know I don't.